NOTE.—Mark the position of the Sabbath law in the middle of the Decalogue, that recognized compendium of all morality. If it were placed at the beginning or end of the law, man might say that it formed no part of that wonderful document; that it was added by men, was ceremonial in its nature; that it did not stand on the same basis as the other nine precepts, etc. But Divine Wisdom, anticipating all these attempts to belittle the Sabbath, placed it in the very heart of that law; therefore before the impious hands of sacrilege can reach it, three moral walls guarding our duty to God on the one side, and six moral laws guarding our duty to humanity on the other side, must be broken down before the citadel of the Sabbath commandment can be reached. It, like all the others, is eternally moral.
Questions on the Law.
2. What shows that the Sabbath is not at this time a new institution?
“REMEMBER the Sabbath day.”
3. What are we to remember?
“The SABBATH DAY.”
4. For what purpose are we to remember it?
“To KEEP IT HOLY.”
NOTE.—It is therefore evident that the day, the DAY of the REST (for Sabbath means rest), is not made holy by man’s keeping. Man’s keeping does not make it holy; man is to keep holy that which God has made holy.
5. What day of the septenary cycle, or week, is the Sabbath?
“The SEVENTH day.”
6. Whose Sabbath is the seventh day?
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD [Jehovah] thy God.”
7. What made it the Sabbath, or rest, of Jehovah?
“In six days the LORD made heaven and earth, . . . and rested the SEVENTH DAY.”
8. When did God thus rest?
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. . . . And on the SEVENTH DAY God ended [‘finished,’ A.R.V.] His work which He had made; and He RESTED on the SEVENTH DAY from all His work which He had made.” Gen. 2:1, 2.
NOTE.—It is said that God finished His work on the seventh day, because the making of the Sabbath was the rounding-out of that week’s work for man. God’s rest on that day was a part of His week’s making. His rest upon that day of the cycle made that day of the cycle His rest day to all eternity; for the fact of the rest could not be set aside. The rest was a step which Divine Wisdom felt necessary in the institution of a holy rest day.
9. What did He do after resting?
“WHEREFORE the LORD BLESSED the Sabbath DAY, and HALLOWED it.”
“And God BLESSED the SEVENTH DAY, and SANCTIFIED it; BECAUSE that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” Gen. 2:3.
Whatsoever God shall bless can not be reversed. Num. 23:20. He blesses, that the thing blessed may be a blessing. Gen. 12:2. So will God’s Sabbath prove to him who receives it.
NOTE.—“Sanctify” means to set apart to a holy or sacred use, to separate from the common. The sons of Aaron were flesh and blood like their brethren, but God sanctified them, set them apart, separated them from the other tribes unto the priesthood. Ex. 28:41. Mount Sinai was composed of rock and earth like other mountains, but God separated it unto Himself, and made it holy. Ex. 19:23, 12, 13. This sanctifying the Lord did by command; so also He sanctified the Sabbath. Note also that it is THE DAY, ever the DAY, not one day in seven, not a seventh part of time, but the seventh DAY.
NOTE that it was made 2,500 years before there was a Jew, and given to generic man, the head of the race, and hence was for all the race, even as the earth was for all the race.
Memorial and Sign.
11. Of what, then, is the Sabbath a memorial?
“He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered.” Ps. 111:4.
12. How long shall His memorial remain?
“Thy name, O LORD, endureth forever; and Thy MEMORIAL, O LORD, THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS.” Ps. 135:13.
NOTE.—If men had ever been mindful of God’s Sabbath, earth would never have known an idolater. The Maker of heaven and earth would have been kept in constant remembrance.
13. Of what, then, did the Sabbath become a sign?
“And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may KNOW that I am the LORD [Jehovah] your God.” Eze. 20:20.
14. Of what else is it a sign?
“Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD THAT SANCTIFY THEM.” Eze. 20:12.
NOTE.—The only power which can make holy and save the sinner is creative power; therefore the Sabbath becomes a sign of redemption as well as a memorial of creation. God created mankind; He redeems His Israel, His people, out of Egyptian bondage. Therefore to the redeemed the Sabbath comes as a twofold token of creation and of redemption. Compare Ex. 20:11 with Deut. 5:15. The power of redemption is creative power. Eph. 2:10; 2 Cor. 5:17. Even so God made known to His people the fulness of the Sabbath on Mount Sinai. Neh. 9:13, 14.
Jesus and the Sabbath.
15. How did Jesus regard the law of which the Sabbath is a part?
“Think NOT that I am come to DESTROY the law, or the prophets: I am NOT come to DESTROY, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one JOT or one TITTLE shall in NOWISE pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:17-19.
“It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than ONE TITTLE of the LAW to FAIL.” Luke 16:17.
NOTE.—A “jot” is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. A “tittle” is a distinguishing point of a letter. To fulfil a moral law is to do it. Gal. 6:2. Christ kept the law and died that we might be redeemed to keep it.
16. What works did He say were allowable on the Sabbath?
“It is LAWFUL [according to the Sabbath law] to do well on the Sabbath days.” See Matt. 12:1-12.
17. How did He spend the Sabbath day?
“As His CUSTOM was, He went into the synagog on the Sabbath day.” Luke 4:16.
18. How did His teaching and example affect the women who accompanied Him, even after His death?
“They returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and RESTED the SABBATH DAY according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56.
The First Day of the Week.
19. How many times is the first day of the week found in the New Testament?
NOTE.—Read all these texts. Mark that these scriptures were written all the way from thirty to sixty years after the resurrection, not one of them calls the first day of the week the Sabbath, or a holy day, or the Lord’s day, nor are we told to observe it as a sacred day or in memory of anything. The first six texts refer to the same first day, the one on which Jesus rose from the dead. The seventh text (Acts 20:7) is part of a record of a meeting held on what would be our Saturday night (for the day began at evening), and the next morning Paul spent the light part of that first day in travel. The last text (1 Cor. 16:2) is instruction from the apostle not to take a public collection in the meetings, but that each one was to lay BY HIMSELF, at home, what he could afford to give, that it might be ready when the apostle came. There is an entire absence of Sabbath atmosphere or precept about these scriptures, but rather the opposite.
20. How did His disciples regard the first day of the week?
“They came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices.” “Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs” (seven and one-half miles). Luke 24:1, 13.
21. In any of their gatherings did they meet to celebrate His resurrection?
“And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, BELIEVED NOT. After that He appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: NEITHER BELIEVED THEY THEM. Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and UPBRAIDED THEM with their UNBELIEF and HARDNESS OF HEART, BECAUSE THEY BELIEVED NOT them which had seen Him after He was risen.” Mark 16:11-14. See also Luke 24:36, 37, 41.
22. Why did they come together (John 20:19) on the close of this day?
It was the common “abode” of “Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphæus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.” Acts 1:13.
The Lord’s Day.
23. How many times does “the Lord’s day” occur?
“I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day.” Rev. 1:10.
NOTE.—This is the only time in the Lord’s Book that the term “Lord’s day” occurs. That text, or its context, does not tell us what day is the Lord’s day. We must learn that from other Scriptures in the Lord’s Book.
24. What day does the Lord call His?
“If thou turn away thy feet from THE SABBATH, from doing thy pleasure on MY HOLY DAY.” Isa. 58:13.
25. What day is the Sabbath?
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10.
26. Of what day does Christ call Himself Lord?
“The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28. (According to the Lord’s Book, then, what day is the Lord’s day?)
The Teaching of the Apostles.
27. What is sin?
Jesus died to save men from sin, from the transgression of the law. Matt. 1:21; Titus 2:14. He therefore died to make men law-keepers, Sabbath-keepers, worshippers and servants of God.
“Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4.
“Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Rom. 7:7.
“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. . . . Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.” James 2:10, 11.
28. For what did Christ come?
“And ye know that He was manifested TO TAKE AWAY OUR SINS; and in Him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5.
“This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3.
30. What, then, will faith do in our hearts?
“Do we then make void the law thru faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31.
31. What will God’s people do in that world to come?
“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon [month, Rev. 22:2] to another, and from one SABBATH TO ANOTHER, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23.
